Rick Tocchet called out the Vancouver Canucks — at least a few of them — for a lack of emotional investment after their brutal loss to the Boston Bruins on Saturday.
“We have, let's face facts, three, four, or five guys, they're struggling — they're struggling to get emotionally invested in the game,” said Tocchet. “This is a game, a sport, the NHL, where you have to be jacked up to play the game. You have to be emotionally in the game, and sometimes the guys, it takes them, like, 30 minutes to get in the game, for whatever reason.”
The message seemed to land with whoever those 3-5 Canucks were, as the whole team seemed thoroughly invested right from puck drop against the Colorado Avalanche. Despite taking two penalties in the first period — sometimes a sign of emotional engagement — the Canucks outshot the Avalanche 10-to-6.
“We take pride in responding when we don’t play our best,” said J.T. Miller. “I think that us playing a top team and against some top players is a good thing in that situation, knowing that we better bring it or it’s going to be a long night.”
Crucially, there was no emotional letdown as the game progressed. Like a delusional crypto hodler, the Canucks remained invested the entire time. It seemed appropriate that the player who is always emotionally invested night in and night out had the best game of the night.
Kiefer Sherwood was a dynamo every time he jumped over the boards. In just 12:45 of ice time, Sherwood led the Canucks in shots on goal with seven and scored all three goals for a natural hat trick — the first hat trick of his NHL career.
“This summer, when I called him — I called him on a Sunday — he was going to shoot pucks,” said Tocchet. “He told me he has an offensive game in him and he does. He’s an aggressive guy and a guy you need on the ice; he gives us juice.”
Just two seasons ago, Sherwood was still spending the majority of his time in the AHL, playing 42 games for the Milwaukee Admirals in 2022-23. He has since carved out a roster spot with his hard-forechecking, heavy-hitting game but he’s proven that he can bring more to the table than just big hits.
“[He’s bringing] a little bit of everything right now, right?” said Miller. “Obviously, the physical aspect everybody's talked about, but he’s got a lot more skill than people probably think, and can shoot the puck really hard. And I think he put all that on display today.”
Canucks fans have loved seeing that display on the ice from Sherwood, but there’s another side that fans don’t see: the positive addition Sherwood has been to the Canucks’ room off the ice.
“He’s a good dude,” said Thatcher Demko. “We love having him around. He’s a guy that has a positive attitude every day, chatting guys up in the morning — maybe you’re a little groggy in the morning before practice or whatever but he’s bringing everybody’s energy up.”
“He was definitely really annoying to play against,” added Demko with a smile. “It’s always nice when you meet a guy on the other side of it and you can cross him off your ‘Do Not Have Friendship With’ list.”
Thatcher Demko was making a list and checking it twice after I watched this game.
- The emotion was invested right from puck drop as J.T. Miller got a golden scoring chance just 11 seconds into the game, driving around Nathan MacKinnon and forcing a great pad save by Mackenzie Blackwood on a move to his backhand. The Miller line was matched up against the MacKinnon line all night and did a bang-up job shutting him and his linemates down.
- “I thought we played fast, played physical, and defended well,” said Miller. “We played a sharp game.”
- Max “Goof” Sasson got a promotion to play with Elias Pettersson after scoring his first career goal on Saturday. He looked legitimately great in a top-six role: he was winning board battles, helping drive possession, and set up Pettersson for an early chance, only for Blackwood to get a piece of the puck and send it off the post.
- Maybe I’m just being overly optimistic but it sure was nice seeing a Pettersson shot from that distance give a goaltender that much trouble. Pettersson had a game-high eight shot attempts.
- Near the end of the first period, Vincent Desharnais got a little overenthusiastic with a clearance in the neutral zone and, instead of sending the puck off the boards, sent the puck sailing into his own bench, narrowly missing backup goaltender Arturs Silovs, who must have been thinking, “I’m not even supposed to be here today,” as he’s only up because Kevin Lankinen is recovering from the flu.
- Kiefer Sherwood opened the scoring on a classic hard work shift. He held off two Avalanche defenders, then when Pius Suter sent Danton Heinen in for a point-blank chance, Sherwood made like Nick McNutt and outraced the Avalanche to poke the loose puck into the net.
- “We know that they’re man-on-man, so you’ve got to attack them low sometimes and set picks,” said Sherwood. “We just created a possession and held onto it and from there, stuff will open up with breakdowns and stuff. Heino, I told him before the game, just get it to the net, and I picked up his change.”
- A sequence early in the second period had me thinking I was in Bizarro World: Noah Juulsen made a lovely defensive play 1-on-1 versus Nathan MacKinnon, neatly poking the puck off his stick. Then Quinn Hughes gave the puck away with a weak pass. Who Freaky Friday’d Juulsen and Hughes?
- All joking aside, Juulsen had a great game including a lot of minutes against MacKinnon’s line. Throughout the game, I was turning to my pressbox mates, CanucksArmy’s Wyatt Arndt and The Hockey News’s Adam Kierszenblat, and noting how good Juulsen was playing, then, near the end of the game, The Athletic’s Harman Dayal chimed in, “Is it just me or has Juulsen quietly been really good tonight?”
- The most intriguing development in the second period is that J.T. Miller, who leads all Canucks forwards in power play points over the last three seasons, wasn’t on the first power play unit. Tocchet called out the power play after the game against the Bruins for going rogue and “trying to be individuals” rather than a team. The Miller demotion to PP2 suggests those comments were aimed at one particular rogue individual. Or maybe not, according to Tocchet.
- “It’s just something we all talked about,” said Tocchet. “Millsy and the other unit knew what was going on, so there’s nothing to that.”
- Miller may have been on PP2 but he got a full dose of Quinn Hughes as quarterback, as Hughes just stayed on the ice for essentially the entire power play. Hughes played 3:53 on the power play — all but seven seconds of their two opportunities.
- “You give him a little latitude if he’s got some juice,” said Tocchet. “If he’s got some lungs in him, we’ll let him stay. I think he’s earned that right.”
- The Canucks’ best scoring chance on the power play was set up by a slick spinorama pass by Hughes to none other than Sherwood on the doorstep but Blackwood came up with the stop to keep Sherwood from challenging Mario Lemieux’s five-goals-in-five-ways. He was just a power play goal and a penalty shot goal away!
- Sherwood and the Canucks couldn’t score on the power play, so he scored on the other side of special teams, netting the Canucks’ first shorthanded goal of the season. Sherwood made a superb read at the blue line to pick off a pass by MacKinnon and burst the other way for a breakaway, with Cale Makar in hot pursuit. Makar never really came close to catching him and Sherwood snapped the puck over Blackwood’s glove in the battle of the Woods.
- “I was just trying to go, just turn on the jets,” said Sherwood. “I was a little hesitant when Nate was coming on just because you’ve got to be aware of his speed but once I had it, I was just trying to put my head down and get it off quick because I knew there were guys behind me.”
- With Sherwood doing all the scoring, someone else had to do the hitting. Miller led the Canucks in hits with seven, none bigger than his crushing blow on Artturi Lehkonen that sent the Finn’s helmet flying into photographer Jeff Vinnick between the benches.
- The Avalanche pushed hard for the comeback in the third period but the Canucks and the hockey gods were having none of it. Thatcher Demko made some great, if sometimes awkward-looking saves, Carson Soucy saved one potential goal with a stick lift on Valeri Nichuskin on a backdoor chance, and then MacKinnon walked in on the left side with a wide-open opportunity and rung the puck off the crossbar.
- To top it off, Sherwood picked up a loose puck after Hughes pressured Mikko Rantanen on the boards and sent the puck the length of the ice into the empty net for the hat trick. It just felt right.
- “I knew I had a little bit of time and, at that point, you’ve got to go for it,” said Sherwood, then joked about Heinen being open beside him. “I owe him a couple plays and dinner.”
- “Kie-Fer Sher-Wood” chants rung out around the arena after Sherwood’s second goal but they were even louder after he completed the hat trick.
- “That was a pretty special honour — I was trying to take it in,” said Sherwood. “I really appreciate the fan’s support. Their passion is something Vancouver is known for. It was pretty cool and I’ll definitely remember it.”
- Of course, the Avalanche couldn’t leave well enough alone. It could have been a lovely finish to the game — a hat trick for Sherwood and a shutout for Demko — but they had to spoil half of the story with a late goal. Weirdly, it started with a giveaway by Hughes, as the excellently-named Ivan Ivan knocked down one of his passes for a scoring chance. Demko made the save but off the ensuing faceoff, the puck came to Nichushkin in front for the shutout-spoiling goal. Boo this man.
- Longtime PITB readers — sometimes known as Bulies — will recognize that last-minute goal as a snack goal. It's a little goal you feed an opposing team so that they don't get too hungry to score next game. You just know that if the Avalanche came into their next game against the Canucks having been shut out in their previous meeting, they would have been champing at the bit to pile up the goals. So, you give them a little snack to tide them over. Smart move by Demko.
